Following this, he released three pop albums in 1957 and 1958 on Epic and RCA as "Tony
Perkins".[3] His
single "Moon-Light Swim" was a hit in the United States, peaking at
#24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957.[4] He
starred with Shirley Booth and Shirley MacLaine in the film The
Matchmaker (1958).

Perkins was cast as Norman Bates in the Alfred
Hitchcock-directed film Psycho (1960). The film was a
critical and commercial success and gained Perkins international
fame for his performance as the homicidal owner of the Bates
Motel.

Perkins reprised the role of Norman Bates in three sequels to
Psycho. The first, Psycho II, came more than 20 years after
the original film. He starred in the sexually provocative Crimes of Passion
(1984) opposite Kathleen Turner. He then starred in and
directed Psycho
III in 1986, followed by the made-for-cable Psycho IV:
The Beginning in 1990.